Oceania: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The Oceania section of the timeline follows 73 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 5 areas: Australia, New Guinea and Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and New Zealand. Among the most significant are Aboriginal Australian peoples, Lapita culture, Māori iwi and Commonwealth of Australia.
Open Oceania on the interactive timeline
Australia
- Aboriginal Australian peoples
- Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples
- Torres Strait Islanders
- Macassan trepangers
- Colony of New South Wales
- Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
- Western Australia (Swan River Colony)
- Colony of South Australia
- Colony of Victoria
- Colony of Queensland
- Commonwealth of Australia
New Guinea and Melanesia
- Papuan farmers and foragers
- Kuk Swamp agriculture
- Lapita culture
- Island Melanesian societies
- Fijian chiefdoms
- Dutch New Guinea
- French New Caledonia
- Colony of Fiji
- German New Guinea
- British New Guinea and Territory of Papua
- British Solomon Islands Protectorate
- New Hebrides Condominium
- Territory of New Guinea
- Territory of Papua and New Guinea
- Western New Guinea (Indonesia)
- Fiji
- Papua New Guinea
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
Micronesia
- Uninhabited
- Pre-Latte Chamorro
- Eastern Micronesian islanders
- Latte period Chamorro
- Saudeleur dynasty
- Nahnmwarki chiefdoms of Pohnpei
- Spanish Marianas
- Gilbert and Ellice Islands
- Guam (US territory)
- South Seas Mandate
- Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
- Nauru
- Kiribati
- Federated States of Micronesia
- Marshall Islands
- Palau
Polynesia
- Uninhabited
- Ancestral Polynesian society
- Tu'i Tonga Empire
- Samoan chiefdoms
- Society Islands chiefdoms
- Hawaiian chiefdoms
- Rapa Nui society
- Kingdom of Tahiti
- Kingdom of Hawaii
- French Polynesia
- Kingdom of Tonga
- Chilean Rapa Nui
- Republic of Hawaii
- Territory of Hawaii
- German Samoa
- American Samoa
- Western Samoa (New Zealand)
- Samoa
- Tuvalu
New Zealand
- Uninhabited
- Archaic Māori (moa-hunter period)
- Māori iwi
- Moriori
- United Tribes of New Zealand
- Colony of New Zealand
- Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement)
- New Zealand
Key events
- Seafarers settle the Marianas. Voyagers, probably from the Philippines, cross more than 2,000 km of open sea to settle the Marianas, the first people in Remote Oceania.
- Dingoes reach Australia. Dogs brought by seafarers from island Southeast Asia arrive around this time and spread across the mainland, though they never reach Tasmania.
- Lapita voyagers settle Vanuatu and Fiji. Lapita canoes cross from the Solomons into Remote Oceania and settle Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji within a few generations.
- First settlers reach Tonga. Lapita voyagers found a settlement at Nukuleka on Tongatapu, the first human presence in Polynesia.
- Polynesians settle East Polynesia. After a long pause in Tonga and Samoa, voyagers reach the Society Islands and within a few centuries Hawaii, the Marquesas, Rapa Nui and New Zealand.
- Building of Nan Madol. Megalithic construction at Nan Madol off Pohnpei expands under the Saudeleur, using basalt columns hauled from across the island.
- Polynesians reach New Zealand. Canoes from East Polynesia land in New Zealand, the last major landmass on Earth to be settled by humans.
- Duyfken lands in Australia. Willem Janszoon's Dutch ship Duyfken charts part of Cape York, the first recorded European landing on Australia.
- Tasman reaches New Zealand. Abel Tasman sights Tasmania and New Zealand, where a clash with Māori at Golden Bay kills four of his crew.
- Cook reaches Hawaii. James Cook's ships land on Kauai, opening Hawaii to European contact. Cook is killed at Kealakekua Bay the following year.
- First Fleet lands at Sydney Cove. Eleven ships carrying about 750 convicts and their guards arrive at Port Jackson, beginning British colonisation of Australia.
- Treaty of Waitangi. Over 500 Māori chiefs and the British Crown sign a treaty whose English and Māori texts differ on sovereignty, the founding document of New Zealand.
- Australian gold rushes. Gold finds in New South Wales and Victoria draw hundreds of thousands of migrants and more than double Australia's colonial population within a decade.
- Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. American businessmen backed by US Marines depose Queen Liliuokalani, leading to annexation by the United States in 1898.
- Women's suffrage in New Zealand. New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country to give all adult women the vote, after petitions led by Kate Sheppard.
- Federation of Australia. The six Australian colonies unite as the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.
- Attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese carrier aircraft strike the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December, bringing the United States into the Second World War.
- Guadalcanal campaign. US forces land on Guadalcanal in August and, after six months of fighting on land and sea, force Japan into its first major retreat of the Pacific War.
- Nuclear tests at Bikini. The United States begins nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, moving its people away. Testing in the Marshalls continues until 1958.
- Mabo decision. Australia's High Court rules in favour of Eddie Mabo and the Meriam people, recognising native title and rejecting terra nullius.